Book 6 made me cry

Notes on weird dog behaviors: I reported a few weeks back that when I went in the back yard and sat down, Izzy glued herself to the top step and wouldn't come see me for death or life. 

I was wrong.  After three occasions of me taking a lawnchair out there, sitting on it and reading for an hour or so, she's off the step and sitting beside me.  I guess that top step got pretty boring.

Now for the news: book #6 of 10

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak


Wow.  I'm not a writer or even an English major, but I'd say he's broken all the rules of good storytelling--and because of that--created a masterpiece story.  His narrator (whom I love) continually foreshadows what is to come, so I was always reading with a vague sense of dread mixed in with my overpowering curiosity.  And his turn of a phrase is frequently so offbeat, so unusual, that I stopped short, went back and re-read--just to see what the heck he just said.  But on that second reading the image jumped off the page and dangled in the air in front of me...I knew exactly what he was saying and exactly what he was seeing.  Clear.  Telling.

It's almost like his purpose in writing was to tell this moral:
You make your own luck, be it good or bad.
(Then random chance wipes you out)

Cat cooperation

Here's what happens when you try to get a cat to pose next to some pecans so you can see the relative size of them--













Nothing.  Cats have no interest in pecans.  Or posing.
Anyway, here's a picture of what we have in abundance--native Texas pecans.  Flavorful but tiny.

Still autumn and wow

A couple of weeks ago, I was mistaken. I thought autumn had come and gone in a week, leaving us in the brown months of Texas winter.

But no--it was still time for the peach tree and the apricot to put on a show.

I'm still working on book#6 but I'm having a problem with this one. The Book Thief is not a book I want to read quickly. I find myself going back to reread passages and marvel at the unusual phrases he chose, close my eyes and imagine the look--or feel--or color it brings to mind.

A little over a year ago I started cooking one wholesome meal per week, on Sunday nights.  I didn't have an goal or time span in mind, it just seemed like a fun thing to do and a way to counteract the bad meal plans that had come to dominate our family suppers.  Supper is typically cooked by the work-at-home parent, not me, and a combination of boredom and back pain had dramatically reduced his interest in cooking.  Our typical dinner had become barbeque on white bread or frozen Philly beef subs.

I also tried to make extras for leftovers or even prepare an occasional second dinner, like a casserole that could be baked later in the week.

So how'd I do?  (One note--shortly after I started, I read An Omnivore's Dilemma and decided I was never going to purchase or prepare meat that wasn't free range.  Witha  few exceptions in the early weeks, all beef mentioned is free-range, grass fed; the chicken is free range and the pork is from local farmers, raised on pasture.  The eggs are from the farm down the street.  The veggies, however, are seldom organic unless they came from my garden.)

August

Fish stew and rice -- Edward and I loved it; the others tolerated it. GG
Grilled spicy garlic shrimp, pepper and pineapple Kabobs -- Edward and I liked it okay, the others tolerated it. P
Stouffer's lasagne and garlic bread -- it needed a salad or some fresh fruit to make a meal ~
Homemade "Olive Garden" copycat minestrone, frozen breadsticks, crab cakes -- Great, great, great!  The boys liked it; Callie wouldn't touch it. GG

September

   

• Chicken gnocchi soup, hot ham and cheese sandwiches with poppyseed dressing -- Pretty good for three of us; Callie (luckily) absent. GG
• Carne deshebrada burritos, refried beans, baked Mexican brown rice and guacamole -- great!  The boys liked it; Callie wouldn't touch it.
• Frozen fish sandwiches and frozen shrimp, corn on cob -- no brainer
• Italian meatloaf, country green beans, and Jeff's potato pancakes -- good, maybe great, but too fattening for me GG
• Mini pizzas with homemade crust, ambrosia -- me:decent;family, ok
• Fish creole, baked brown rice, roasted brocolli with sesame seeds - me:heavenly, family: too
• Chile rellenos casserole and chipotle black bean stew -- me: heavenly; the boys ate it; Callie was blessedly absent GG
• Baked chicken, half in mole sauce and half in normal barbeque sauce, leftover beans, salad with avocado, brocolli w cheese -- nobody liked mole X

October

Tofu stir fry, brocolli beef, hot and sour soup, baked brown rice -- a great and three goods GG
Magianno's rip-off lasagne, garlic bread, Swiss chard -- mostly okay ~
Dr. Bruce's Awesome Grilled Salmon, mashed potatoes, garlic buttered green beans and baked apples -- good but hardly "awesome" G
Lemon roasted chicken with herbs, rosemary roasted new potatoes, brocolli with cheese, apple crisp -- 2 greats and 2 goods GG
Whole wheat tuna/cheddar rolls, rattatouie, sweet potatoes, grapefruit -- great (me), two goods and an abstain GG

November

Clam chowder and pan toasted croutons, salmon patties, spinach with cream cheese, tropical chef salad - a great, two goods, and someone wouldn't touch it GG
My own grilled chicken wrap, Santa Fe black bean salad, guacamole and chips, pumpkin pie - double awesome (me and who cares about anyone else?) GG
Hoppin' John from Cookus Interruptus, corn bread muffins, turnip greens, pork cutlets in mustard sauce - no complaints G
Turkey, dressing, cranberries, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy.  Dietary nightmare (me) but everyone liked it G

December

• Thai grilled shrimp pinapple, wild and brown rice pilaf, roasted vegetables, fried tofu - not spectacular but edible G
• Turkey enchiladas, refried beans without the refry, guacamole, raw vegetable medley - I liked it but my enchilada technique needs work G
• Hand's oysters casino, steamed fish Oriental style, rosemary roasted potatoes, turnip greens, grapefruit - we didn't like the oysters much ~

January

• Coq Au Vin a la Italiana, white bean and kale(collards) minestroni, rice, grapefruit - not great M
  Flounder with spinach and cheese by Hands, scalloped tomatoes by Hands, corn muffins, grapefruit - I liked it, okay? ~
  Turkey and dumplings, deviled eggs, Hoppin John, brocolli, apple crisp - someone doesn't like corn in his blackeyed peas G
  Smoked Salmon Reuben sandwiches from Cookus, frozen fish, spinach mashed potatoes, grapefruit - bad recipes poorly executed X

February

Sausage and eggs, fluffy pancakes, brocolli with cheese, and grapefruit-orange medley - nothing to complain about GG
Country green beans, Maple butter nut granola - ha, ha, cheated!  Family went to a potluck G
My own grilled chicken wraps, three sisters stew, fresh veggies & ranch dip, guacamole - I THOUGHT 3 SISTERS STEW WAS GREAT! GG
Salmon on the Half Shell by Hands, frozen fried shrimp, turnip greens, fresh fruit salad - Callie ate the salmon (shocker!) but I don't remember about the rest of us ~

March

Tacos, refried beans (half black) in the crock pot, tomatilla salsa, guacamole & chips - the salsa was bad but the rest okay P
Penne pasta with meatballs and vegetables - potentially great except I left it for Ed to bake in the oven and it took too long and got a little crunchy around the edges  GG
Brocolli beef, teriyaki chicken, stir-fried vegetables & tofu, brown rice - A good time was had by all  GG
Bayou country seafood casserole, mixed vegetables from freezer, fish creole, dessert tart from paper - good as usual  GG

April

Fried tofu,  egg McMuffins, sweet potato corn muffins, fruit salad - the corn muffins were dry but interesting PP
Beef and shrimp fajitas, leftover refried beans; baked brown Spanish rice; guacamole - great and Callie had a second helping  GG
Barbequed ribs, potato salad, corn on cob, strawberry crisp - I messed up on the ribs but they were still pretty good GG
Eggs, sausage, biscuits, veggie platter - family staple G
Potato salad, sloppy joes, veggie platter - (couple of extra meals this month--Ed was out)  G
Penne Arabiata, frozen vegetable, garlic toast - fabulous  GG
Spinach quesadillas, chorizo quesadillas, turkey enchiladas; guacamole, refried beans, queso and chips  GG

May

Salmon cakes, baked scallops, brocolli with garlic butter and cashews - not great recipes ~
Swedish meatball casserole and no vegetables - disappointing (no vegetables) but the family liked it G
Roasted chicken with herbs, roasted corn on cob, sauteed Swiss chard, country green beans - I thought it was great but the kids didn't eat for other reasons P
Omelettes, sausage, hash browns, sauteed Swiss chard, cinnamon rolls - no one complained and we all overate GG
Sweet and sour pork, fried tofu, brocolli beef, chinese green beans, baked brown rice - a lot of work but delightful results GG

June

Fajitas, sauteed Swiss chard, purple hull peas, guacamole, sliced ripe tomatoes - good staple, no complaints GG
Barbequed meatballs, potato salad, sphaghetti squash - meatballs were dry and boring and no one liked the squash X

July

Grilled fish, shrimp fried rice, brocolli with cheese sauce, fruit salad with whipped cream - decent reviews GG
Ground beef enchiladas, Hoppin' John, guacamole, leftover fruit from yesterday - I didn't care for the recipe X
Boeuf Borgiononne, garlic mashed potatoes, corn, peas, fruit salad - beef was great but we didn't care for the sides G

August

Sausage, scrambled eggs, fried apple & cherry turnovers, frozen vegetables with cheese sauce - I scored a hit on the turnovers but required Callie's help to finish them.  Trickly little blighters  GG
Grilled mongolian pork chops, baked potatoes, Julia Child's spinach, salad with avocado - the chops were overcooked and needed longer marinade time but the spinach was great G
Broiled swai parmesan, frozen fried shrimp, blackeyed peas, turnip greens, canned biscuits - I thought the fish was awesome!  Who cares what anyone else thinks? GG

September

• Enchiladas verdes, beef fajitas, spanish rice, queso, guac and chips, fruit salad - yum, yum, but the rice was mushy GG
  
• Minestrone, salmon patties, spinach feta quiche, baked sweet potatoes - very good (me) except for the quiche but the other guys weren't impressed ~
• Penne pasta with meatballs and vegetable sauce, garlic bread, salad - no record of results ~
• Sausage, eggs, turnovers (apple and cherry), brocolli with cheese - good again G

October

Red beans and rice, cole slaw, devilled eggs - I liked it but no record of the others G
Chicken pie with liver pate, turnip greens, ambrosia - everyone hated the pate flavor X
Frozen fish, frozen shrimp, french fries, leftover succotash - no one ever complains about frozen fast food G
Crab and shrimp pasta, peas with mushrooms, creamed tuna, cookies - great, with cookies GG

So, this is fourteen months of cooking, 64 meals, and about 120 recipes that were either new or at least complicated enough that I had to consult the directions.  For example: baked sphaghetti squash was a recipe because I had to look up the directions on line; baked sweet potatoes was not.

The distribution of meal results are:
GG great - 30
G   good - 19
~   so-so - 9
X  bomb - 6

I think that's a pretty good achievement, even considering that I only chose recipes that I expected one or more of the family members to like.  Nothing too healthy, too spicy, or too vegetarian as much as I would have liked to.  If I went back and looked at the percentage of meals that I would consider decently nutritious...at least 48 or so.

I also noticed that my photography got better as time went on and that fruit salads make prettier pictures than meat dishes.

Ideas for the future:
1. More fish
2. Keep pushing the vegetables
3. Less Mexican unless you come up with some healthier side dishes
4. More fresh fruit.  I learned that kids will eat all kinds of fruit if it's mixed up in a chunky fruit salad.
5. Stir fries are a lot of work but worth it.
and last,
6. If I love a dish, does it really matter who else hates it?

Saturday is movie day

Big day planned.  Clean the bathroom.  Make a major dent in the laundry.  Vacuum the living room.  Mow around the bird feeder and try pounding it in deeper.  And, most importantly--read.

That's if Callie doesn't interrupt with some nonsense like a movie....

She did.  And we did.  And furthermore--major milestone--she drove.  I won't get any medals or applause or even geniune praise for it, but I finally let go and let my daughter-with-a-learner's-permit drive me to the movie theater.  Yesterday was when it started.  I was driving along the highway to N's and it was big and broad, nearly deserted, and had shoulders as wide as tractor-trailers are long.  So I pulled off at the next exit and let her take the wheel.

(She's been driving with her Dad since August)

Anyway, here's the movie review of the week:

Rise of the Guardians

Just about the only animated 3D move that isworth the 3D premium.  There's something magical about having snowflakes fall on your cheeks, especially when they're in your imagination.

We laughed out loud a good number of times--at least four or five and then I lost count.  How's that for a recommendation?

Of the cast of supporting characters--Santa Claus, the Bogey Man, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and the Sandman--I'd say the Sandman took the stage, front and center.  But they were all good and the kids that believed in them, not at all bad either.

And, yeah, it was well characterized as a kid's version of The Avengers.  But what's so bad about that?

Thanksgiving and book #5

I am not going to waste my whole day cooking.  And I am not going to post bragging pictures of the fabulous meal I created.  Instead...

High Tide In Tuscon


by Barbara Kingsolver





When I re-read the first ten chapters I did eventually remember them, but they were so good I enjoyed them a second time around twice as much.  The book contains a series of short essays on things as varied as Hermit Crab behavior, global child-rearing, travels in Spain and species extinction.  So many notable quotes I wished I'd marked every page of 'em--but that would have been make my book fringy with all the yellow stickies.

I'm thinking of putting it in the bathroom and just leaving it there, for every time I need a lift.  Sitting time == brain-expansion.

Read this book.  Don't expect a complex plot but don't expect to put it down without reluctance...just one more story....

Much later.  Wow.  The turkey (Alton Brown with modifications) really was juicy and flavorful.  The dressing best ever.  The gravy (second attempt) strong and rich; the potatoes fluffy and the roasted winter vegetables were to die for!  I can cook!

Not ready to sum up

"Technically" I finished High Tide in Tuscon on Sunday night, but I realized on Monday that I didn't remember the first 10 or 12 chapters at all.  I owe them a re-reading.  Will sum up when done.  Maybe when you get old enough you only really need to keep ten or fifteen good books on hand.  By the time you've finished the last, you've forgotten the first and can start over again.

Thawing out my baby turkey now...when I picked it out, I thought it was going to be a late supper in honor of the guys' return from Arkansas.  Then they decided not to go--oh, well.  Not only will it be quick to cook but I won't be tempted to overindulge on leftovers.

I wonder if I went my Central Market on the day after Thanksgiving they'd have the leftover turkeys on markdown?  Fat chance!






Here's what I won't be having this Thanksgiving dinner...turnips.  Picture from last November.

Thanks to an intestinal upset that kept me couchbound, I finished book #4,
Bridge to Terabithia

by Katherine Paterson








 but...I'm not proud to admit it.  To record this warm gem as simply a book, number 4 on a reading challenge, is like calling the Grand Canyon a stop on a cross-continent tour.  Think mind-blowing. 

I'd already seen the movie so I knew the ending.  The temptation to stop on chapter 10, The Perfect Day, was strong and can't say I'm proud of myself for sticking it out.  But I did, and got the reward of seeing a tiny bit of Jess's character growth that they left out of the movie. 

I'm not blasting the move, by the way.  It did justice to the book in the best tradition of Disney movies.  I've seen a lot of Disney movies based on books and they never seem to disappoint--Holes and Hoot are a couple that come to mind.  (aside: I'm not sure this is a movie based on a book or the other way around.  But I don't feel good enough to research that right now.)

Starting the Saturday

Book #3 is: Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
I am so glad I finally finished reading this,

even if it is about sixteen years after everyone else finished reading it.  I'd stopped about halfway through when she was dating Daniel and things were a little boring, but the minute I picked it up she started obsessing over a mini-break (aren't British people cute?) and things picked up again.

To sum up: quick and fun but definitely not as hilarious as the cover indicated.  Possibly the "quick" did me in--I frequently had to go back and reread a few lines because I didn't get it the first time.  It could be a problem in my reading habits--my brother has long accused me of skimming instead of reading.  I need to slow down.

Recommended if you're looking for something light to take on vacation when you're going to be interrupted a lot, like a plane trip or a week at the in-laws'.  Easy to pick up; easy to put down.  Fun.

Confessions

I'm cheating on my eight-week-ten-book challenge a little.  The first three books were ones that I'd already started reading.  The real challenge will be when I start a brand new one.  Tomorrow.  But I have high hopes for the holidays--vacation reading, yeah!

Autumn is over in North Texas.  It happened last week.

Thursday and one to go

One more for my collection of Weird Dog Behaviors.  When I come up to the fence from outside the fence, she runs up to greet me and stretches up on the fence to be petted.  (This picture was taken right after the greeting.)

But when I go out in the yard with her, she scurries to the top step and huddles against the door and won't be coaxed out in the yard by any amount of string cheese.  I'm sure she learned this behavior from something in our first few weeks together, but danged if I know what.



I got a short jog in today!

Wednesday and finally sitting down

It's 7:29 p.m.  I've been home since before six o'clock--and I finally get to sit down.

Book #2 of my ten book challenge is,

Around my French Table: More than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours
by Dorie Greenspan

I bow to The Tipsy Baker's opinion on this one--Dorie has great recipes, detailed instructions, and comments in the margins that answer your questions before you even ask them.  She's a goddess; her book is a jewel; and I'm leaving it on my amazon.com wish list until someone buys it for me.  Apart from recipes, she has some funny descriptions of her shopping adventures in France--I wished for more.

Since it is a cookbook, and a hefty one, I didn't force myself to read every word.  But I did turn every page, read all of the comments in the margins, and skim each recipe to see if I could or couldn't live without cooking it, immediately.  Since I'm not a foodie, there were only two recipes I copied out--her Beef Daube looks like a sensible replacement for the over-complicated Beouff Borgiononne (plus, I never have been able to spell it).  And her baked cauliflower dish looks so scrumptious that I'm probably going to try it for Thanksgiving.  I also learned how to make my own Creme Fraiche.  Next time I need the finicky stuff, I'll think two days ahead and make a batch with the leftover heavy cream in the refrigerator and the plain yogurt I buy for the dogs.

Tuesday and turkeyfull

I felt like a ghost yesterday.  I went to work and it was nearly eleven before I even saw an email directed at me--and that was from my brother.  Finally the salesguy bugged me and I felt alive, albeit bugged.

How can they actively pursue sales of a product with no support staff behind it?  Product without support--not even a  call team in India.  That's my product.  Guess I'll go back to reading blogs.

Later.  Callie had a German Class Emergency, so I stopped by Central Market to get her a package of Bratwurst.  She'll take it to show-and-tell tomorrow and hope the teacher approves.

I was pleasantly surprised that they also carried "free range" turkeys.  I bought a 10-pounder; small, but more than adequate for a family of four people, three dogs and a cat.  Free range is in quotes because I don't know exactly what that means in the Central Market dictionary....aha!  They really are! 


http://marysturkeys.com/

Sunday cooking recap

Cooking last night, I learned something.  Anything that involves folding little circles of dough around runny filling and crimping the edges shut...is not something I'm ever going to be good at.  After I made one batch of spectacularly ugly empenadas, I left a half-cup of chorizo draining on paper towels and made a batch of apple-cinnamon empendadas.  Also spectacularly ugly.

Then I had a couple of extra circles and finished them up with the (now well-drained) chorizo.  Those were easy.

Verdict on the chorizo empenadas:  good, could have been great if I'd not cooked the green chilis with the chorizo and if I'd snuck a little cheddar cheese into the crust.  Got to try that!

I also totally failed on what a "Spanish onion" is.  Best as my research can tell, it's not anything.  I saw them described as yellow, white or red, but universally, "mild."  But my research proved useful, because I now know this:
1. Yellow onions are the most pungent and best for long, slow cooking.
2. White onions are a little milder and would be preferred for stir-frying.
3. Red onions are milder still and not good for cooking.
4. Of course, onions grown in low-sulfur soil (Vidalias) are heavenly.

So my best definition of a Spanish onion would be a red onion or a mild yellow or white onion.  That really narrows it down.

Good fajitas!

Sunday musings

A cold front's blowing through now, so I'll let yesterday's work stand on its own merits and not try to venture outside.  Other than to bring in house plants and make cuttings off begonias.

The south garden plot, before Saturday.  At this point I would ask is there any point in having a garden at all?  It always ends up like this--an endless circle; green to gray; death to redemption; seed to weed.

This is after.  Labor, power tools, and Callie's help.  It's not plantable but it's possible to imagine it becoming so.  Gardening--like anything worth doing--requires a great deal of imagination.  Hope, I guess you'd call it.  Or is it stupidity?  Being too stupid to realize how pointless it all is.  But if gardening is pointless, then so is life....

I don't want to go there.

I found three potato plants that had come up from potatoes I missed in the digging.  I guess I'll leave them.  If we have an abnormally mild winter, they'll get a head-start on next year.







I left the broccoli, too.  After my cutting this summer, some cows came through and nipped off the tops.  But the massive stalks are still there, working at it.  Will they overwinter and produce a third crop?  I don't know but I don't have the heart to kill them; they're trying so hard.

Saturday and the usual: movies and carry-out

Good chance of rain tomorrow, so I'm definitely working outside today.  Home come I didn't finish the garden last weekend?

Oh, yeah.  Too hot and the freezer had priority.  Mind you, when I say finish the garden I don't mean finish the garden.  I just mean get it into a state where it's not actively degrading and put the lawnmower back in the barn.  If I get excessively energetic, I'll mow the front yard, too.  And take pictures.

Later.  I'll exult over the amount of work I got done and post progress tomorrow.  Right now--
I'm.  Too.  Tired.

[jogging: turn + 7 poles which means my count is off this time or last time because I know I went farther this time]

Movie review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Parents, beware!  Kids: go see this movie.  It's got dysfunctional teens--dysfunctional in so many  messed up ways--and still hope for a life after high school.  And maybe next time you see a kid who's not fitting in...who's a little too quiet or a little too weird...maybe you'll reach out to him.  He might just turn out to be the only friend you can dump your soul on.

And one more thing--don't despair if the only friend you make on your first day of high school is your English teacher.  It can get better.

Friday - optimism

No new pictures and no new news.  How to read my next book on the list, a cookbook?  I'm definitely not going to read every recipe.  Maybe it's sufficient to turn every page, look at every picture and read the snippets that appeal to me.  And I just might try one or two recipes, that would count, wouldn't it?

So how am I doing on the 10-book challenge?  Seven-and-a-half weeks, nine books to go.  Ow.

Wednesday's achievement

I finally finished reading a book!   It only took me six weeks, too, for a 267 page book!  (Yes, that is sarcasm.)

And the summary--

Book #1 Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, by Novella Carpenter

An urbanized daughter of former hippies planted a community garden and then ventured into food animal production--all on an abandoned lot in Oakland that was up for sale to build high-rise condos. 

The book is divided into three sections--Turkey, Rabbit, Pig--as she takes on more complex challenges in the raising, killing, and eating of food animals.  The turkey section hurt my heart.  The rabbit section made me want to join the peace corp and go teach impoverished families to raise meat rabbits.  The pig section?  It made me feed weird.  I eat pork, you know--and her particular porkers had a happy, happy life on their way to death and dismemberment.  But killing and eating our fellow animals is not the stuff of which poetry is made...or should it be?

Her description of dumpster diving experiences are both skin-crawling icky and snicker-tickling funny.  The times when she lost animals nearly made me cry--don't read this if you don't want to feel the hurt.  The experiment where she ate only food she'd grown herself was contrived, a bit, but still so very worth the while.  And in the end, she found--

Not telling.  Read it yourself.

One-and-three-quarters thumbs up.  (On a scale of two.)

Notable quote:  "...when I considered my messy house; it was a sign of a busy, full life."  Does that apply to my messy house, too?

Tuesday woes

If life were a Rex Stout novel, it would be called Misery in Triplicate.  Work stinks; I get out late and traffic stinks, I have to walk dogs after dark and no jogging first, which stinks, and I have to clean up the dog's diarrhea from last night and that truly stinked; now I find my Winzip has somehow been updated to a trial version--when did that happen?

Forget it--I'm switching to 7zip.  But it looks like I'll have edit the registry to get rid of WinZip...eventually.  I'll brute-force it off of here.

Somehow, in spite of all my optimism on Sunday, I have still not managed to finish reading the very first book on my list.  Maybe today.  Meanwhile I can enjoy the memory of my weekly cooking adventure...

Seafood  
 Pasta Primavera

\





Peas with mushrooms and other good stuff.

Sunday - bonus hour

Daylight savings time just kicked off a new hour in my day.  Maybe I'll spend it reading!

Or maybe I'll spend it catching up on the laundry, editing my daughter's essay, installing software on her computer, and loading food into the freezer.  I need to look at my cooking schedule, too.  And finish the dining room chairs.

Maybe not.  I'm still dealing with the empty bowls left after throwing away half the contents of the freezer.  And I just rearranged my cooking/dog walking schedule.  Dogs first, cook second.

Speaking of dogs, it looks like someone finally figured out what a dog house was for.

 About that book list...I just realized how confusing it is to start a year-long reading challenge on the 4th of November.  The revised challenge: ten books by the end of the year.  Then I'll start over.
The list.
 1. Farm City by Novella Carpenter
 2. Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan
 3. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
 4. Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
 5. High Tide in Tuscon, Barbara Kingsolver
 6. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
 7. The Cain Saga #3, Kaori Yuki
 8. The Cain Saga #4, Kaori Yuki
 9. 1776, David McCollough
10. Fractured Fairy Tales by A. J. Jacobs

[jogging: T + 3, the usual light day]

Saturday - work, work, work

I must have misplaced a couple of days in my year of blogging about Socializing the Incredibly Unsocialized Dog.  Day 1 was on October 31, but day 365 didn't come until November 2.  It's all I can do to keep myself from going back and figuring out where the missing days went.


Luckily I have better things to do.  Like reading the Girl Detective blog.  She managed to read 100 books in one year.  And blog about them.  I couldn't do that--that's like a book every 3.5 days and I don't manage one book a month.  Even if I included an occasional graphic novel--like she does--I couldn't do it.  Maybe I should set a goal of my own...24?  No, not "round" enough.  How about 10?

I could make a list of all the books I've already purchased and plan to read, then add in the ones on my amazon.com wishlist...that would probably be a nice round fifty.  But...no.  She's a stay-at-home writer and mom, so I'll let her win this challenge.  Right now I've got a garden to uncover.

Later.  The garden plans got cancelled.  See:



Almost 80 degrees and not even noon yet.  Sunny and sticky.

Beside, why did I think I could defrost a huge upright freezer crammed full of food and still have time to work in the garden?  I'll be lucky to get the freezer done and all of the wasted food hauled to the garbage can.
The things I'm throwing away are mostly those of indeterminate age, like bowls of homemade turkey broth and chili and chicken soup.  They're probably only a year old, but who knows?  I typically put dates on vegetables from the garden, but the homemade foods used to get rotated pretty well.

But they're all scary now.  The freezer door wasn't closing right, so anything near the door has been thawed out. 

Back to the book list.  I was afraid of this...the recently-added, unread books on my shelf adds up to 21.  There's at least one unread book on the Kindle and another 18 on the amazon.com wishlist.  That doesn't leave much wiggle room.  I didn't count the uncounted number of books I bought several years ago, which got mixed in the bookshelf when Ed rearranged my books.  I had carefully separated "read" and "unread" books--but he didn't know that.  He put them all in alphabetical order.

So here's the top of the list, my bookshelf.

 1. Farm City by Novella Carpenter
 2. Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan
 3. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
 4. Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
 5. High Tide in Tuscon, Barbara Kingsolver
 6. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
 7. The Cain Saga #3, Kaori Yuki
 8. The Cain Saga #4, Kaori Yuki
 9. Louisa May Alcott, by Harriet Reisen
10. Fractured Fairy Tales by A. J. Jacobs
11. 1776, David McCollough
12. Reaching the Animal Mind, Karen Pryor
13. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Seth Grahame-Smith
14. 11/22/63, Stephen King
15. Asimov's Guide to the Bible, Isaac Asimov
16. The Year of Living Biblically, A. J. Jacobs
17. The Pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman
18. The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
19. Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan
20. Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali
21. The Know-It-All, A. J. Jacobs

But first, a movie review.

Wreck-it Ralph

How did they manage to cram so much sensory overload onto one 98-minute movie screen? 
plot: good. Surprising at times.
special effects: not excessively stomach churning but not worth the 3-D premium
characters: superb
overall: remarkably good but don't take a little kid to it.  It's a little dark at times and they've never heard of Q*BERT.
I did hear some scattered applause at the end.

[jogging: turn plus 7 telephone poles]

Day 365 - A year of work and worry...summary to come

So it's been a year.  I need to look and and sum up...but not today.  The end result is she's everything I could ask for in a companion dog.  She does almost everything normal dogs do as long as you're not staring her in the face.

Today I'm too preoccupied with tomorrow.  The Garden awaits--except--I have to make a detour into the garage first.  We have a malfunctioning freezer filled with food.

Day 364 - watching for squirrels

She's been eating pretty well the last few days, both breakfast and supper.  I'd been having to put the other two dogs out when I leave for work to keep them from stealing her food, but when the weather turned cold I hated to.  And suddenly, I didn't have to.  Yay!

This morning was weird.  She was sitting by the mostly-empty food bowl, and as I went toward the back door Zack approached it.  She jumped up and leaped toward him--almost but not quite jumping over the bowl.  Food flew everywhere.

Only twenty or so kibbles, luckily.  I picked most of them up and restored them to the bowl.
So was she guarding her food at last?  Or just playing?

Day 363 - garden report part 3

After tilling.  Not a good, deep tilling, but just enough to get the bigger clumps of grass broken up.  On a first tilling of overgrown ground, I have to stop and cut/jerk/unwind the grass stems from the tiller blade shaft  once every 15 minutes, which makes for very slow progress.

Now that's over, I can do it right.   So...next weekend, south bed.

Followup to yesterday's gripe--I actually made the insanely stupid mistake of looking forward to a hour of peace and quiet while the family went to church.  But...they didn't.  An injury kept one of them home and the TV blared just as loudly as always.